bookgazing | Weekly Geeks: 2009-32

This weeks Weekly Geeks assignment asks us to talk about those books that have been sitting on our shelves for oh so long, the ones we occassionally cast sad little glances at and say ‘ I’ve been meaning to get to you, honest darling, you must just be patient’ before we scurry out of the room for a triste with a bright, shiny new novel. While there are quite a few books that I routinely avoid eye to spine contact with ( ‘Anna Karenina’ will your pages ever see sunlight? ) the book I feel has received the shabbiest treatment from me is Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows.

When Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone first came out I was 13, maybe a little older than the audience the publishers wanted to target but still quite close. I remember reading the very early publicity articles in the kids insert to the Telegraph, before everyone knew how big Harry Potter was going to be. I was there at the beginning, before the immense blow up of the brand and I really liked the books. I think I read the first one maybe four times and the second one three times, although in my opinion it wasn’t as good as the first. When the fourth book came out I was happy it was so big, it just meant more Harry Potter (and dragons) for me.

Then along came Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which in my opinion is a sad excuse for a book. It abandons a decent, pacy plot on the pretence that it will provide extensive character development, then fails to deliver. And the death – worst.death.ever and not in a satisfyingly gory, but odd way. I struggled through Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince after that, but the magic of the series was gone for me. Order of the Phoenix had broken my link with the fantasy world and no matter how good HBP was I couldn’t get into it, I couldn’t remember what had happened in the last book and I was losing the will to care about the characters.

So now I slink around the final book in the series. I know I have to read it sometime, I must complete this series and all my friends are amazed that having finished the Half Blood Prince over what, two years ago (oh really, um) I haven’t read it. Someone accused me of not being a ‘real fan’ and I admit it I’m not, I was just a girl reading and enjoying before all the big fan stuff really took off and finding myself disappointed by a book in the series I stepped away without feeling like that would damage my status as a fan. I’m also a girl horribly afraid that the last book of the series will be just as unsatisfactory as the Order of the Phoenix.

So Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows I know you’re not like that other book that done me wrong. I know you’re eager to show me how good we could be together, but I’m just not ready to take such a big step right now. Please, say you’ll wait for me!